By ROBERT MCCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
October 20, 2005

The U.S. Navy is flouting federal law by conducting sonar training
exercises like the 2003 incident in the San Juan Islands that spooked
orcas and may have killed porpoises, environmentalists charged in a
lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups said they have
been trying for years to get the Navy to talk about ways to decrease
harm to marine mammals and other sea life, but the service has refused
to deal with the issue head-on.

"The U.S. Navy regularly uses for routine testing and training a
technique that we know for a fact causes whales to die, and their use of
this technique has been done in the past and will be done in the future
without complying with the United States' bedrock environmental laws,"
said Andrew Wetzler, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

"All we are seeking is for the Navy to prepare a mitigation plan and
commit to following U.S. environmental law."